Kitschy Shadow Boxes

I made these kitschy shadow boxes for Craft Challenge #12- 'Kitschy Craft Contest' on Craftster. The rules included that your entry had to use at least three materials from this list: pipe cleaners, dried pasta, gimp (a.k.a. plastic lacing), popcicle sticks, plastic easter grass, pom poms, and potholder loops. From this list I chose to use popcicle sticks, pom poms, and pipe cleaners. Materials I used in addition to the ones on the list include craft felt, plastic toys (from the dollar store), wood glue, hot glue, and wood stain with polyurathane. Now, here are some closeups:

Although I did not win the contest, I was very excited that I did get 12 votes. There were a lot of good entries, and I will admit that my entry was not at as high a level as that of a few others, including the winner. Really, I was just glad that someone out there liked my stuff, because I was really proud of how these turned out. They were relatively simple and easy to make, but I feel the results are pretty clean and professional looking considering the materials they are constructed out of. I think this would be a great project for both children and adults.

*Tutorial coming soon

My husband also entered the contest and his creation is known as the Lord Gawd King Elephant of Kitsch. He also selected popscicle sticks, pipe cleaners, and pom poms as his materials from the list. He also added a very unique material to the inside of his elephant . . . fireworks. A few months after the contest, he lit this baby on fire and it exploded and burned down to a charred mess. Here it is, pre-burning:

Sorry, there are no burning and post-burning pictures available. I seem to have lost them.

Scarf Sweater

This sweater is a project that I made for a graduate class I took back in the fall of 2005. I can't remember the name of the class, all that I remember is that it was one of the most awesome classes I have ever taken in the Apparel Design department at OSU and it was taught by one of my favorite teachers ever, Vince Quevedo (Props to the prof!).

My idea behind this project was to take something simple and make it complex. Also, I wanted to make something that's design was free-form in style, because my usual designs tend to be very structured and exact. I decided to begin by making several simple scarves in various lengths and widths, which I planned to somehow turn into some sort of sweater-like garment, but I did not really calculate measurements or plan out how I was going to arrange my pieces (except for the 2 sleeve pieces). Once I finished creating the scarves, I began arranging them on my dress form until I found a composition that I liked. Then, with a tapestry needle and some yarn, I stitched the whole thing together by hand.

A few months later I posted a pic of my sweater on Craftster and then forgot about it for a while. Recently, I decided to comb through some of my old posts and was surprised to see the amount of postive comments I had received on this sweater. I was so flattered! I was also having a bit of a bad day that day, and seeing all those nice posts really cheered me up. Many of the comments posted mentioned wanting a tutorial, so here it is:
Download Scarf Sweater PDF Here!

Poring from Ragnarok Online

My husband and one of my brothers like to play RO, which is loaded with all sorts of cute little creatures. Somehow or another, I stumbled upon a pattern for one of these creatures known as a Poring. So I ended up making two of these things, one for each of them.

If you are interested in making one yourself, here is the pattern that I used:
http://iro.ragnarokonline.com/irobackstage/2004_05/iroback4.htm
However, I did do a couple of things differently. I only cut out the body and the eye pieces. As for the eye highlight and the wierd little pieces they give you to patch the top and bottom, I just skipped those. To get the bottom and top to shut nicely, while the piece was inside out, I just ran a needle and thread through the fabric near the edge by hand, pulled it snug, and tied off my thread. For the mouth, instead of sewing a cord onto the body, I just embroidered a mouth with some black embroidery floss. For the eyes, I just stitched the felt circles flat onto the body and did not stuff them at all. For the eye highlight, I put a dab of fabric paint on each eye, which is much easier than trying to cut out a stupid little piece of felt that small.

Items Received from Ornament Swap

Since I posted the items that I sent out for the ornament swap, I thought I should show you all the lovely ornaments I received in return. Here they are: